Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Old Man's War

I had to read this for my college fiction class. I quite enjoyed this book. I found the humor to be hilarious and the protagonist is fun. It's just a simple sci-fi story with some solid twists and interesting exploration of humanity.

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novella42's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

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singalana's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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minzzi's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

This book wasn't for me.
I'm a character driven reader and all the characters in this book were so one dimensional it hurted. Like, I get that the main focus of the story is the war, but some of the characters we spend more then half of the book with and they are as flat in the end as they were when first introduced and because of that I ended up not caring when someone died.
The main character clearly had what I like to call "action anime male protagonist symbrome", with includes: plot armor so he doesn't die even when he should, being perfect in everything he tries to do and having hot woman interested in him just because. I didn't hate him, but I also didn't like him, he was just a bland protagonist.
Also, the author seems to be very confused on what type of book this is. He seens to be writing a fantasious story with unrealist alien science, with is totally fine, but then he tries to explain away the craziness like it is real Earth science and it gets really confusing. Especially because the tone of the story is all over the place, going from stupid jokes to action packed scene to stupid joke in the blink of an eye with paragrafs of science throw in the middle.
It poses some big questions, like: Is colonizing space by killing entire aliens species ethical? How much can you alter your body and self until you are no longer a human? Etc. However, those questions are never answered. The war is just there and that is not good considering that said war is the center of the plot.
The only saving grace for me was Jane and her relationship with John. Wich didn't help much since she only shows up in the last, like, 10% of the story. Honestly, if the book was told from her perspective I would have enjoyed it more. The whole concept of the the Ghost Brigades was interesting, but, unfortunately, not interesting enough to make keep reading the series.

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nedens's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A really great entry into a broad science fiction space exploration series. Not heavy on the science detail but uses that as a backdrop to explore the ideas of what it means to age as well as what it means to go through different stages of life. This is all done through a pallet of cloning and military service. A good and easy read.

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